Morning all! I could really use some advice. I'm a copywriter who needs to create a portfolio site and get it online ASAP. Like yesterday ASAP. No bells & whistles, just a place where I can showcase my work. (At some point, I'll create a contact form in case people want to hire me for freelance, but right now, this will just be for companies to view my writing samples when I submit job applications.) I'll be putting up mostly PDFs but also some video. I've already purchased my site domain name, and I've decided to go with WordPress for building the site. But I'm spinning my wheels on who to go through for hosting. I assumed it would be best to use either Bluehost, Dreamhost, or HostGator, since they are the 3 "Wordpress approved" hosts. After reading countless reviews and comparing plans, I decided against HostGator and have been going back and forth between Bluehost and Dreamhost. The features that mean the most to be are security and good backups; I'm not a coder and prefer to have as much of the back-end techy stuff done for me as possible. That was leaning me toward the managed Wordpress plans, and I'd just about settled on the DreamPress Plus plan — but $25/month seems high for my type of site. Then I look at Bluehost and see their ChoicePlus and GoPro plans, and they're so much cheaper (for a year, anyway). But then I think about the JetPack features. Ugh I'm all over the place. I guess what it boils down to is, I really don't want to pay $25 a month right now. Maybe in a year, if my site gets bigger and I actually start attracting freelance; again, right now the goal is just getting samples up, by the end of today if at all possible because momma needs to apply for jobs now! Any advice on the host & plan to go with, particularly for a site-building noob who just wants to get something clean and professional and simple up FAST but also have it be secure and backed up well, would be so appreciated. Thank you!!!
It's not that I necessarily want cheap. I want good security and backups, as I mentioned. I am just having a hard time deciding between Bluehost and Dreamhost's various plans, plus I would consider another host if it was definitely good for WordPress sites. I don't want to just go cheap and then experience all sorts of problems.
Just got with any big box store host like hostgator, bluehost, godaddy, etc. They are cheap but have all the bells and whistles like backups, advanced security, nice website builders, cPanel, etc.. I would say you can probably find something easily for around $5 a month or less since your needs are very basic.
Godaddy is good for domain names, but very poor for hosting, my website was slow and often completely down.
Most hosts will be ok, don't over think it. Find one that meets your budget, answers the phone when you call, and won't charge for restoring from backup if you totally goof. If you have to be online asap then leave jetpack until later.
when you need your website must Online tomorrow, than you must set it up now. I think, you can try it for one month, when it's really not good than you can move to another hosting. but, if you really concern one time setup for 1 year, you must decide what you need and will you get with your hosting. I think three of them are good for hosting with customer services & quality services above everage.